Foxtel announces new service Foxtel Now with HD streaming and Chromecast

Foxtel has announced a new streaming service called Foxtel Now, which brings together a number of previous Foxtel services into one highly polished service which brings equivalence with the brand’s traditional satellite and cable-delivered services. The move is important for Foxtel, which has – thus far – relied upon Foxtel Go (which only has a subset of cable programming) and Foxtel Play which wasn’t quite as feature rich, and has recently lost a number of channels. The new service features low-priced and flexible bundles that ensure subscribers have greater freedom and access to sign up to Foxtel’s incredible content with no set up costs and the ability to cancel at any time.

Foxtel Now has some killer features, some of which have been demanded by users for some time, including:

Foxtel Now is here and we’re thrilled to share it with customers hungry for the best choice in live sport, new movies, TV and complete seasons.

Over the past few months we’ve introduced some fantastic new changes to our subscription streaming service including lowering the entry point to $10 per month and launching on Telstra TV. As part of the evolution of our streaming service, we felt the time was perfect to relaunch the service as Foxtel Now.

Foxtel Now represents our most flexible and affordable entertainment service and brings with it HD streaming, a great new look and feel and the freedom to jump in and out based on your viewing preferences.

What’s available on Foxtel Now?

Like the cable / satellite delivered Foxtel services, Foxtel Now features five entry level packs to match viewers’ interests including Drama and Pop packs priced at $15 per month each or $25 for both. Lifestyle, Docos and Kids packs are available at $10 per month each. The Drama and Pop packs both feature the showcase channel, which airs HBO’s award-winning Game of Thrones, meaning fans of the series can enjoy the upcoming Game of Thrones season 7, in HD, for only $15 per month.

Foxtel Now’s Movies pack is available for $20 per month in addition to an entry level pack and the Sports pack is available for an extra $29 per month, meaning Sports lovers can now get access to Foxtel’s incredible sports programming for a little as $39 per month.

Foxtel Now launches tomorrow (7 June) and will be available on PC/Mac via the Google Chrome browser, Telstra TV, iOS and Android mobiles and tablets, and Chromecast.

To allay concerns about changing feature sets, Foxtel Now subscribers will have access to all the same programmed content available via cable/satellite (as applies to the selected packs), along with all of the on-demand, catch up and library content available to that tier plus mobile and tablet access via the new Foxtel Now app. At launch there will be over 16,000 titles in the on demand library, half of them in HD with more HD content being added all the time.

What about Foxtel Go and Foxtel Play?

Foxtel is offering a two week free trial to entice new (and existing) users to the platform, which you can access via www.foxtelnow.com.au.

From what we understand, Foxtel Go will remain a companion service to the traditional cable/satellite Foxtel services, available to those subscribers at no extra cost. Foxtel Play will continue on existing smart devices until such time as an updated app is available, and it seems implied, though this isn’t clear just yet, that Foxtel Play may eventually be shuttered in lieu of Foxtel Now.

I already have Foxtel though

Foxtel Now is essentially a separate service offering; if you have cable or satellite Foxtel, you can sign up from $26 a month to get access to Foxtel Now, and you too can take advantage of HD streaming, Google Cast access and access on other supported HD devices. It doesn’t appear as if there’s any pricing advantage to signing up to Foxtel Now if you already have Foxtel satellite / cable — all you’d really gain is the HD streaming / Chromecast features, though we’re looking into this further. There’s also the lack of contracts here, so you can change your packages by the month.

Chris Rowland Editor and Publisher

Chris has been at the forefront of smartphone reporting in Australia since smartphones were a thing, and has used mobile phones since they came with giant lead-acid batteries that were "transportable" and were carried in a shoulder bag. He saw the transition from AMPS to GSM, loved the Motorola StarTac, and got into Palm technologies in a big way. The arrival some years later of the original iPhone, and then the early Androids, awoke a new interest in mobile technology, and Chris has been writing about it since.

Today, Chris publishes one of Australia's most popular technology websites, Ausdroid. His interests include mobile (of course), as well as connected technology and how it can make all our lives easier.

It’s really not worth the price. As a long time Foxtel Play subscriber, I was to say the least astonished and dismayed by this re-branding by Foxtel that brought with it a reduction in quite a few channels that were deleted from the offering, but the price didn’t decrease. Current subscribers were more or less kept in the dark until virtually the last minute. When some of us found out what was going on, we were left with only partial information in an extremely weak effort of disclosure. Suffice it to say I immediately deactivated my Foxtel Play account, as… Read more »

I phoned them up and they offered me a measly $30 credit on my account but I’m yet to receive the email that I requested confirming this. The pure arrogance of not informing their customers prior to the change shows they don’t give a stuff. They told me the music channels such as Max and Smooth were removed because nobody watched them, I told them that was a load of garage as some people mostly watched those channels and only signed up for that and the movie channels. The only positive I see is that you get access to Game… Read more »

Foxtel Now was undoubtedly the main announcement, but they also spent some time discussing their rebrand, increasing focus on IPTV, and some mention was also made of their puck device which will be coming end of the year. Might’ve been a bit of overkill, but some of these features have been needed for some time; Chromecast is a great new feature, and HD streaming (albeit, 720p to begin with) is definitely welcome.

Basically a one cent a year “licence fee” for access to the club branded channels eg Liverpool FC TV. Not sure why they even included that in the release, and I meant to take the asterisk out before publishing. My mistake – have updated accordingly.

Holy moly, my head hurts trying to understand their pricing structures.
Netflix; $15 per month
Stan; $15 per month
YouTube red/play music; $15 per month
Foxtel Now; grab a coffee, snack and a comfy chair, this will take a while.

Just thinking through this last night, if this was offered with internet that’s unmeterd that would make it worth it over Their cable/satellite offering.
But the above is the same pricing as their normal offering, but then you also have to pay for a massive GB internet plan to accompany it.

Yeah they are dreaming if they can continue to charge their ridiculous prices. Trouble is until this bullshit NBN gets around not everyone can just jump onto the streaming only bandwagon. It is good to see them at least try and get their tech offering up to scratch, wonder if they will up their game on the catchup tv, its currently junk